upgrading cpu with budget constraints

[ian_tec234]

well i have one comp ....i bought a sempron 2400+ cause i thought all amd athlon xp are gone here...im form the philippines...then a friend told me that there is still two more shops that has an amd 2500+ i know what im choosing from are slow compared to the new computers but this is all i can afford since im still a student and im getting what im buying....
so now my sempron has stock 333 mhz fsb and 1.67 ghz, and 256 l2 cache...
im running it at 2ghz and 400mhz fsb....
im confident i can run the amd athlon xp at 2.2 ghz with no problem plus i get the extra 256 lt cache ....
now my question is it worth it to pay 54 usd for an extra 200mhz and 256 l2 cache?
by the way i have 2 , 256 pc 3200 corsair....my mobo is an epox 8rda3i
hoping for your reply....cause the athlon 2500+ are getting fewer and fewer...and oh....i do rendering as a hobby but i do it a lot.....and my cooler is a volcano 12 i have 3 intakes and 3 exhaust case fans...i guess my cooling is just good for overclocking sempron and i guess the athlon xp.... and oh..will that upgrade do me a big thing? rather than spending my money on buying 1 more stick of 512 to make my ram 1gb....? but using my 3rd slot will disable duall ddr..... need help guys....
thnx good day!

[Catweazle]

Hi,

Grab that extra RAM mate. Dual channel memory configuration brings stuff-all benefit for that processor platform unless you are using onboard video, and with your rendering I'm sure you're not doing THAT!.

The extra RAM will bring you more benefit than any other change you've mentioned.

I wouldn't be so confident that the XP2500+ would hit 2.2GHz. 2500+ chips manufactured recently have had the clock multiplier 'super-locked', and have not necessarily overclocked as easily as earlier examples. I've come across quite a few that struggle to run with stability at more than 100MHz above stock settings. If your Sempron is comfortably running at the settings you mention, then I'd suggest you simply add the extra RAM and be happy with it until you can afford a better upgrade later on.

[ian_tec234]

hi catweazle thanks for the speedy reply...well... yah i do understand that youre suggesting for one more ram...but i still have a question....you see i have 2 sticks of ddr 400s occupying the two channels for the dual channel to operate.... if i add 1 more the dual channel will be disabled...is that a big loss? or will the performance be still better with the dual channel off rather than having an upgrade in cpu
thnx.,....

[Catweazle]

I've already said, mate, that dual-channel for Athlon XP is not worth considering. It's only benefit to onboard NVidia graphics. If you think you've had better performance from dual-channel on an Athlon XP system you've been conned ;)

Forget about it. More RAM is much better.

(By the way, that Sempron 2400+ is basically an Athlon XP with different settings and less cache. Only the Sempron 3100+ on Socket 754 motherboards has a new architecture. Your one uses a modified Thoroughbred core.